Exactly two months ago I was in Freiburg im Breisgau because of the Kreiswehrersatzamt (A kind of department that has to fulfill personal needs for the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr) wanting to check me for military use as part of the general conscription in Germany. They stated me as T2, meaning "partially useful" and they could draft me for military service at the beginning of october. However, I expected to become T5, meaning "not of any use" because of my glasses, somewhat broken back (I even had a medical attestation about this) and pretty bad grades in schoolar sport. But this was not the only reason why I was not satisfied with being T2: On the one hand I wanted to begin my study of physics in october, on the other hand most of my class mates have been rejected - even those with significantly better sport grades.
This is why I entered objection against the decision of the Kreiswehrersatzamt. After some exchange of letters they decided to recheck me today, so I went to Freiburg once again this morning. After several minutes of waiting here and there the doctor did a quick examination and finally called an orthopedist in Karlsruhe who decided to declare me T5 after having received some medical documents like the attestation mentioned above. So I came home just about an hour ago being happy that I have no longer to deal with those Armed Forces people and having removed the (hopefully) last obstacle for beginnig with my studies.
The problem is not even the general conscription as such, but the fact that they accept/reject people mostly arbitrarily satisfying their needs (well, at least it seems so to me). It just hurts that most of my friends could begin to study while I would have to do some military service (or civilian service) for nine months that gets me nowhere but is just another lost year. The other thing is that there is no corresponding obligation for women, but this argument has already been raised against the conscription several times. I hope that it is just a matter of time until they either drop the conscription at all or introduce obligatory civilian service for anyone except highly disabled people.
